The present invention is directed to a composite article having a combination of blast resistance and ballistic resistance. Such composite article is particularly useful for personal protection such as for a helmet or in body armor.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,300,893 B2 discloses armor having protection against blast and ballistic damage by encapsulating or sandwiching rigid inclusions or a rigid plate in a high-strain rate hardening elastomer U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,053 B1 discloses visually transparent multilayer armor panels employing a composite including a confined high-strain rate sensitivity-hardening polymer between transparent layers and a further composite which also contains a transparent layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,105,510 B1 discloses a stratified composite system of armor which includes a backing of elastomeric matrix material and low-density ceramic elements arranged along a geometric plane.
A need is present for an article having a combination of improved blast resistance and ballistic resistance.
In the following sections, numbers in parenthesis pertain to reference numbers in the Figures.